Keep Me Burning!

Jesus told the parable of the ten virgins

in Matthew 25 and this is what 

the homily was about during mass yesterday.

Fr. Herb, our priest, told us that during the time

of Jesus, weddings took several days.
The ten virgins were guests at
the wedding feast and had been
waiting for the bride and
bridegroom to arrive.

They all became tired and fell asleep.
When the bridegroom party was arriving,
they woke up and trimmed their lamps.

There were 5 virgins who wisely brought oil
to refill their oil lamps,
but the other 5, called the foolish virgins
in the parable, had to leave and buy some oil.

 When the bridegroom arrived,
the foolish virgins were locked out of the
wedding banquet.

"Lord, Lord," they said, "Open the door for us!"
But he replied, "I do not know you.
Therefore keep watch,
because you do not know the day or the hour."

 The wedding feast is the heavenly banquet.
The bridegroom is Jesus, and the bride is the Church.
The virgins are you and me.
The question is, are we one of the wise ones,
or one of the foolish ones?
Do we have extra oil with us?

There are many explanations for what the
oil symbolizes.
Faith? The Holy Spirit?
Whatever it is, we need to be prepared
for when the Lord comes at the end of our lives.

"Stay awake and watch."
The danger is really in the waiting.
The parousia (an ancient Greek word
meaning presence, arrival or official visit)
is long delayed.
Sometimes we grumble when we HAVE TO
go to church, or service, or prayer meetings,
or men's and women's groups
as we have them in our Covenant Community.

Sometimes we are ungrateful for our spouse,
our children, our work, our community.
The big danger is routine and familiarity.
We lose faith, we lose our enthusiasm.
We lose our desire to have
a closer relationship with the
One who created us, the One who loves us,
the One who gave our lives meaning.

When the light of faith and
enthusiasm dies out,
that's when we are
unprepared to meet the Lord,
that's when we need oil to
keep our fire burning!

Let us pray for the gift of
a growing relationship
with the Lord,
and let us pray for the
gift of gratitude!

Linking with
Spiritual Sundays,

On Your Heart Tuesdays,

Laura at the Wellspring,

and

Click on the pictures for 

sources of the photos!

Hold On to Hope!

I'm one day late for the party,

but I didn't want to miss the fun!

 Here is the canvas I'm working on.

I have yet to attach the flowers

and put stems.

I also have to put wall putty

on her dress and paint it.

I think I'm going to name this

"Holding on to Hope". 

In my journal is a drawing of Aquila and Priscila,

two names mentioned in the Bible six times.

Paul in the Book of Romans said they

were his co-workers, as they also built tents.

They would hold prayer meetings

in their house as there were no churches yet.

They are mentioned again

in Acts 18, that they took time to 

disciple the learned and eloquent man, Apollos,

when they heard him speak in the synagogue.

Obviously, this couple did what they could

with what they had, to spread the Word

and build the Kingdom of God on earth! 

Even though sometimes they were persecuted 

and had to relocate because of persecution,

they continued to hold on to hope!

Linking with

Artists in Blogland,

and 

Have a great day!
Patsy

Unfinished Business

We had a four day weekend

and I thought (mistakenly as it happens)

that I would be able to do some 

badly needed cleaning up

and organizing.

But I did start on a canvas.

I have no idea why this is lying down

when my saved picture is right side up!

 Here's my journal page for today.

It's not yet finished as I need to do other things

before going to work.

Matthew 25:37 reads:

"Lord, when did we see you hungry

and feed you,

or thirsty and give you a drink?"

This passage got me thinking 

about Steve Job's last words:

"Oh wow, oh wow, oh wow!"

We'll never know what he saw,

but it must have been something awesome!

What happens when we die is a mystery,
but in this passage of Matthew,
we get a hint that what we do for the poor,
the hungry, the homeless, the prisoners,
the sick, the weak, matters a lot.
It will determine where we're going to end up!
Scary? Not if we live life
by the golden rule, and start living
with love and kindness for others today.
After all, that is how we will live
in our eternal home.
We may as well start now!

Joining the lovely Julia for a 

peek at desks and projects!

Linking up with
Encouraging Words Wednesday

Be blessed!

Patsy

Come on in and Feel at Home!

I couldn't resist!

Just had to join the party even though 

I'm really late! 

My name is Patsy, 

and I live in the Philippines.

I am married to a wonderful man, Luigi,

who is an IT Consultant.

We had a joyous double wedding with my sister.

That's us on the right.

A year after, both of us had little boys!

My son is on the left.

He's 16 years old now.

This is our house.

I live next door to my sister Peggy.

We live on the right,

and her family lives on the left side.

Peggy designed our house,

and what's really great about it is

if we have a party, we can open up

the dividing wall,

and have a bigger space to entertain! 

Come on in and feel at home!

I'm not going to show you my living room,

because after two years since I moved

to our new house,

I still haven't put anything on my walls!

That canvas on the easel is still not finished!

I have some more artwork here.

I have been blessed with a GRReat family.

I live near my parents

and my siblings and their family.

And we see each other almost

every day, because we work together!

I have been working since 

I was 11 years old

in our family business,

papemelroti.

Papemelroti stands for 

PAtsy (that's me!), PEggy, MELdy,

RObert and TIna, my siblings.

It started as a joke,

but now has grown miraculously!

I started this blog as a way to share my 

art, canvases, scrapbook pages, 

ATCs, and now my journal pages.

This is a collage I did in my journal 

to help me remember Ephesians 2:19-22.

We are part of the body of Christ,

members of God's household.

Are we doing our part to build and encourage,

to serve and love others?

We are all brothers and sisters,

journeying together to our heavenly home!

What an exciting prospect! 

Linking with

Artists in Blogland,

and 

Thanks for the visit!
Patsy

Of Pencils and Journals

I'm going to echo what everyone

has been saying:
I can't believe how fast 

Wednesday comes around! 

Here's my desk.

I found out that I had so many pencils.

Cheap ones, expensive,

metallic, watercolor, etc.

I haven't been using them

because I hid them in a toolbox.

Not a good idea!

I put toilet paper rolls into my plant box

and organized the pencils by color.

Good idea! 

So I've started to use them.


 
Picnik.com hasn't been nice to me lately
so I haven't been able to crop my pictures.
Here's my journal page.
Romans 8:26:
"For we do not know how to pray

as we ought,

but the Spirit itself intercedes 

with inexpressible groanings."

This is a comfort to me,
because sometimes I think,
"Do I know how to pray?
Is God hearing me?"

S
 
Luke 13: 18
"The Kingdom of God is like a mustard seed

which became a tree

and the birds of the air

perched in its branches."

What in the world does this mean?
My take on it is that
whatever small thing we do
for others,
whatever good deed, service,
encouragement,
even the gift of a smile,
has far reaching consequences.

Romans 8:16
"The Spirit Himself testifies 

with our spirit

that we are God's children.

Now if we are children,

then we are heirs-

heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ..."

Princess _________.

Put your name in the blank.

Does it sound good to you?

Joining the lovely Julia for a 

peek at desks and projects!

Linking up with
Encouraging Words Wednesday

Are you Up or Down?

Here is my finished canvas.

Thank you to all who gave me suggestions 

last week.

I tried covering up her arm with a shawl,

but the too small hand could still be seen 

and it bothered me.

So I just made another hand,

and used the "Shawl"

to decorate her dress!

The title of my work is Psalm 16.

"The boundary lines have

fallen for me in pleasant places.

Surely I have a delightful inheritance."

This is what is on my journal page.

St. Paul is rather harassed by his sinful ways!

"Miserable one that I am!

Who will deliver me from this mortal body?"

Sometimes we are up,

and sometimes we are down.

Some days we feel blessed, 

everything is going good,

and sometimes we feel miserable like St. Paul!

Whatever we feel, 

we should always remember 

that God is journeying with us!

Linking with

Artists in Blogland,

and